


That's the Way of the World

by keepcalmandstanon



Category: The Umbrella Academy (Comics), The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Basically on Hiatus, Cuddling & Snuggling, Eventual Smut, F/M, First Kiss, First Time, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Ghost Sex, Sex, Slow To Update, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:40:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25888237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keepcalmandstanon/pseuds/keepcalmandstanon
Summary: Ben Hargreeves was beginning to accept that he would never be able to find love, until he meets you, a young woman running a coffee shop who happens to be able to see ghosts. Whatever could happen?Rated M for future chapters
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves/Reader, Ben Hargreeves/You, Klaus Hargreeves & Reader
Comments: 7
Kudos: 151





	1. What a Fool Believes

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, I haven't written in a while but the newest season of Umbrella Academy made me want to give Ben the love he deserves! So in the show I'm assuming Ben is physically around 16/17? But for the purpose of this he is 18 (although his mental age is presumably older). Anyways, I decided to have fun with this and alter the timeline even more!

Ben was getting a bit tired of constantly following Klaus around Portland. They were on their third thrift shop in one of the more hip areas of the city and Klaus did not seem to show any sign of stopping as he sauntered through the store looking for G-d knows what. He would complain but a distracted Klaus was better than a whiny one, and an addiction to thrifting is a nice change from the usual drugs and alcohol.

“Come on Benny-boy, lets go” Klaus called, and in two seconds he was running to catch up with his brother as he speedily walked into the nice little cafe next door. 

***

You loved your job. True, running your parents’ coffee shop at the age of 19 wasn’t your original life plan, but you had absolutely no complaints. _Also, if you were being completely honest with yourself, getting a STEM degree while absolutely hating math was a pretty bad idea in the first place._ And so, like with most things, you had settled into a routine, getting up early, making yourself an egg and toast, and then going downstairs to open your shop. You had hired your friend Janie a while back to help out with the shop, so you usually only worked nights, spending your afternoons in your apartment baking or cleaning, and in the shop reading. 

Which is exactly what you were doing on this very rainy afternoon, cuddled up in the comfiest chair in the entire cafe and reading _The Importance of Being Earnest_ until you were jolted out of your book by the shop door slamming loudly with the entrance of two men. _Men? More like man children based on absolutely every observable thing about them._

You watched as they came in and took a seat next to you. You could only hear bits and pieces of their conversation, something about wet leather pants and the Vietnam War. When the lanky brown-haired one made the younger boy in the black jacket laugh particularly loudly, you found yourself smiling, accidentally catching his eye before quickly turning back to your book. 

***

“Fuck!” Ben said, rubbing at his eyes. _That didn’t just happen. There was no way that could happen._

“Excuse you, I was just getting to the good part” Klaus replied, although with more of an amused air than one of genuine annoyance. 

Ben lowered his voice. “That girl just looked at me.” 

“WHO, THAT ONE?” Klaus yelled, pointing at a concerned elderly woman making her way to the pastry counter. 

“No you idiot, the pretty one right next to us.” 

“I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you Ben but you aren’t exactly visible to the naked eye. However…..you can see other people when they are naked, can’t you? Ben you dirty dog you.”

“Klaus can you just be serious for one second, she genuinely looked at me.”

“FINEEE. Let’s go talk to her.” 

“No no no that’s not what I meant Klaus please don’t–”

***

You were interrupted from your book yet again by the older brown-haired one tapping your shoulder with much more force than what was necessary to get your attention. 

“Hey sweetie, can you settle an argument for me.” 

Raising your eyebrow, you lowered your book. _Well this could be interesting._ “Sure, why not. Shoot.”

“Okay well my name is Klaus, and that there is my friend Ben.” Klaus gestured to his friend still sitting at their table, who threw a shy wave in your direction. 

You nodded, waiting expectantly for him to finish. “...and?”

“Well, I guess I’m asking if you can see him or if you think I am crazy like the people currently staring at us.” 

Giving a quick glance around the room, you saw quite a few of your customers quickly turn their gaze away from yours, and heat rose to your cheeks, a mix of embarrassment and confusion. Lowering your voice, you looked back at Klaus. “Why wouldn’t I see him?” 

Klaus gestured for Ben to join the two of you. “In that case, is there somewhere we can talk? Preferably private?”

And so, against your better judgements, you found yourself leading two complete strangers through the back of the cafe and up to your apartment.


	2. People are Strange

Your apartment wasn’t much. Although you had a steady job, it wasn’t a high paying one, and the majority of your profits went toward the rent of the building, cafe and apartment included. 

Going up to your apartment, plaster walls came into view with exposed brick, evidence of the many years that had passed since the building had been built, with windows covered by sheer white curtains. 

The entire place was fairly open, and you had spent a long time adding things to it over the couple of years you had lived there, and it was a nice mix of eclectic fabrics and colors. A blue green couch was in the middle of the apartment next to a fuschia armchair and the fireplace, a stack of wood sitting beside it in the corner. Brightly colored floor cushions were scattered around the couch along with miscellaneous piles of books, and your grey cat slept on the windowsill. Potted plants hung from hooks in the ceiling along with the occasional lantern containing randomly sized candles. 

The kitchen had old painted cabinets, and a large cutting board took up most of the countertop, along with a significant number of pots and pans stacked on top of each other. You had a vintage-looking white fridge covered in photos and postcards, and due to a lack of storage space, you had a galley-style net above the kitchen holding up bags of potatoes, onions, and apples. 

The smell of coffee comfortably wafted up from the shop below, and you gestured for the boys to follow you to the couch where you set down your book and took a seat on the couch. Ben sat carefully beside you, and Klaus stretched out on the chair in what looked like the most uncomfortable position possible, feet going off the side of the armrest and head tilted back at an angle. 

You took a moment to study the boy beside you. Ben looked your age, maybe even younger, but he had fine smile lines around his eyes and mouth. His hands were folded in his lap, and his foot was tapping silently against the ground. _He’s really cute, in a sort of shy-emo-sulky kind of way._

“So are you guys going to explain what the hell is going on?”

Klaus looked at Ben. “I’m going to let my little brother take this one, Y/N.” 

_That's why they are so comfortable with each other._

Ben shook his head. “You do realize that we are technically the same age right?” 

_Wait. The same age. How could they be the same age when Ben looked so much younger._ Suddenly a wave of realization washed over you. “Wait a minute.” 

The two boys stopped their bickering and turned towards you. 

“You guys are from that academy, right? With that crazy guy….Hargreeves!” You walked over to your bookshelf and pulled out the book Janie had gotten you for your birthday. _Extra Ordinary: My Life as Number Seven_. 

“That means…” _No that can’t be possible._

Ben grimaced. “I’m dead, I’m a ghost, a spirit.” 

You sat back down. “How...how is that even possible?” A lot of things began to make more sense. The imaginary friends you had had much longer than most children, the strange occurrences you swore had happened only for people to laugh at your creative imagination. You had managed to forget them, chalk them up to being an over-imaginative child. But now..it all made sense. You could see the unseeable. 

Looking at Ben you gathered your courage and smiled. “Tell me your story.”

Ben laughed. _You were so incredibly beautiful. And you were smiling at him. It felt nice, for someone to smile at him like that, for someone other than Klaus to see him, spend time with him. To look at someone and have them look back._

So you spent the remainder of your day being regaled by the many exploits of the Hargreeves family and how their current circumstances came to be, along with Klaus’s advice for navigating a world where ghosts are real. _Although advice might be a bit too good a word for random bits and pieces of stories from his terrifying interactions with the dead._

Pretty soon, nightfall came and with it the neon lights from the city began to cast an electric glow through your windows. 

You needed a distraction so you made dinner for yourself and Klaus, just some pasta from the cupboard with a bit of garlic and olive oil. You had apologized, you weren’t expecting guests and although you were a good cook, your eating habits were fairly irregular, but Klaus had assured you that he hadn’t had a home cooked meal in a long time, and greatly appreciated the effort. 

Although Ben couldn’t eat, he leaned against the counter and chatted with you as you cooked, and he reveled in the feeling of doing something so mundane, so normal. He found himself looking at you a bit too long when you turned away to stir, his eyes following how your cream colored sweater hugged your curves and tucked into your light blue jeans. He could catch a glimpse of mismatched patterned socks peeking out of your brown leather boots, and grinned as you brushed your hair from your face with the back of your hand, nearly flinging your wooden spoon across the room. _Stop gawking at her_ . He told himself that you were so incredibly alive, and young, and despite his obvious attraction to you, he didn’t want a repeat of the whole Jill situation. _Which would be even worse because she actually knows he exists._

Your night had quickly moved from dinner to drinking coffee on the couch (Klaus had suggested something a bit stronger after finding the bottles of wine on top of the refrigerator but Ben had assured you that it was a very bad idea). Yawning, you stretched before inviting the two men to stay the night, fumbling around in your coat closet to find an air mattress for them before retiring to your own bedroom.

***

Ben couldn’t sleep. In fact, he wasn’t even sure if ghosts could sleep. Sure, he could sit on the couch, even lay on it, but it didn’t really offer the feeling of comfort that it would have had he been alive. He was overtly aware of his not-aliveness as he sat in the dark, watching the city lights streaming through the window change from lime green to hot pink to vibrant purple, casting light and shadows around the hanging plants. Y/N’s cat had followed her to the bedroom so he was left alone with Klaus’s faint snores and the whistle of wind echoing from the fireplace.

All of a sudden he heard a clunk noise come from your bedroom, separated from the rest of the apartment by an open doorway. _Don’t do it, Ben, it probably just came from outside._ Against his better judgement, he got up from the couch and moved towards your room. 

Your bedroom was very much on brand with the rest of your apartment. You had a wooden dresser with various candles and pieces of silver jewelry strewn across it, a small pile of clothes on the stool at the foot of your bed that your cat was currently curled up sleeping in, and a dark wooden desk with your laptop and what he assumed was your journal next to another heap of books. And then there was you in bed, curled onto your side under a colorful quilt, a teal blanket pooled at your feet. 

He sat at the foot of the bed and looked at your peaceful sleeping face before you began to awaken. _Well shit. You’ve done it now Ben._

You glanced into the darkness of your room, unsure of how you had been stirred awake before you focused on the boy in front of you. 

“Ben?” You sleepily rubbed your eyes. 

“Y/N I’m sorry it’s just that I couldn’t–well I can’t–sleep and then I heard a noise so I came to see if you were okay…” Ben gulped. You had sat up so the quilt had fallen from your shoulders and he could see the outline of your body through your pink chemise. 

“Hey, no worries. Do you want to chill in here with me? Can’t say I would be good for conversation, I’m pretty tired but you know, if you need some not-Klaus time.” 

“Um, yeah that would actually be great.” 

Scooting over, you patted the space next to you, and he carefully sat down trying hard not to phase through anything. 

Laying down you turned your face towards him, and he slowly turned towards you, keeping his arms close to his body. You smiled. For a national hero, he was incredibly shy. _No doubt the work of daddy Hargreeves_. 

The two of you stayed up talking about books and music until you dozed off a bit after sunrise, and Ben found himself relaxing next to you, allowing himself to stretch out his legs and lay back listening to the noises of the city outside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did some minor edits...2020 is a burning dumpster fire and I simply cannot update right now.


End file.
